As is tra­di­tional in some English-speaking coun­tries, when a child loses a tooth it is cus­tom­ary for him or her to place it under the pil­low, so that Ratoncito Pérez will exchange it for a gift.

What the mouse does with the teeth is anyone’s guess but the tra­di­tional answer is that the mouse uses it for its tooth house. That’s right, a tiny house made from the loose teeth of chil­dren, which in my mind con­jures a hor­rific image.

The next time one of my kids loses a tooth I’m just going to change things up a bit and say Ratoncito Pérez is on his way.

Next time you apply for that dream job, just stop, stop using that disin­gen­u­ous cover let­ter. You don’t want to end up on the bot­tom of a pile of tired-looking papers or worse yet, tossed in the trash.

I can’t promise you’ll be hired after using this, but you’ll prob­a­bly receive a call back.

To whom it may con­cern, I know how to do life. Don’t even have to look at the stuff I’ve done in the past because my future belongs here.

I’m more than thank­ful for my wife Franch­esca, all of my kids (the real stinkers they can be at times; lit­er­ally and fig­u­ra­tively), my fam­ily, friends and co-workers.

I’m also thank­ful for my tal­ents and what I can offer to the world. I’m aware life is frag­ile, some­times chal­leng­ing, unfair, tragic.. but, in off­set­ting those, life can be ful­fill­ing, reward­ing, beautiful.

Sim­ple truths, sim­ple answers, com­plex themes.

Thank you to all of those I’ve come in con­tact with in my 32 years. It’s been all of the above and then some.